LOMAN HALL HISTORIC ADAPTATION
The property is a 45-acre corporate campus with four office buildings located in a rural/suburban zone in the greater Philadelphia, PA region. Situated on 7 acres and includes a recently renovated 7,000 square foot c. 1940 mansion (known as “Loman Hall”), legacy trees, ornate masonry walls around a deteriorating formal fountain and a south-facing boulder garden with grotto water feature overgrown by aging trees and invasive shrubs.
The original, historic property was a private estate dating to the early 1940’s during the “Country Place Era” of American architecture. It shares a legacy with other local properties that endure as public gardens (Chanticleer, Mount Cuba, Nemours), country clubs (Greenville) and institutions (PHS Meadowbrook Farm, University of Delaware). While no direct evidence could be found, the period of the gardens, the style of their design and the social status of the owners give credence to the notion that the gardens could have been designed by a notable landscape architect such as Beatrix Farrand or Ellen Biddle Shipman.
The design intent was to (1) preserve the natural and architectural heritage of the site and reconcile those assets with the modern needs of the client, (2) create a variety of outdoor spaces that may be chosen by garden visitors based on their needs, seasonal conditions and weather variations and (3) utilize a simple palette of materials and plants that are compatible with the historic setting and require maintenance limited to seasonal or periodic inputs.
The Walled Garden included restoration of freestanding and retaining walls and the reimagining of the formal fountain and the surrounding space. The upper retaining walls were completely rebuilt, with the existing stone veneer salvaged and reused in the new work. Smooth, tubular steel handrails were created at the stairs to meet building code and fit the formal theme of the existing architecture. The original fountain was rebuilt in its original footprint, using the salvaged bluestone coping. A new walkway with seating areas at either end was created using Pennsylvania bluestone, taking advantage of existing trees for shade and a sense of maturity. Planting design was organized with more diverse, seasonally transformative combinations at the center closest to the water, making garden care easier with its smaller footprint. Flowering spans April to September with the likes of Aquilegia canadensis, Iris sibirica ‘Caesar’s Brother’, Aster ‘Wood’s Purple’ and Muhlenbergia capillaris. The outer edges are planted with larger drifts of fewer species of perennials and grasses, and larger shrubs for easier care and seasonal persistence with species such as Amsonia hubrichtii, Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea ‘Transparent’ and Carex morrowii ‘Ice Dance’. We especially love the long seasons of interest through their texture and form and their interplay with light and breeze.
The Rockery, which appears to have originally been a rock garden featuring “dwarf” ornamental conifers, was edited to remove invasive species and overgrown trees, preserving several larger specimens on the east end to create a shady retreat in the otherwise full sun location. The traversing walkway was restored with a compacted gravel base and fine, decorative gravel on the surface, contained at the edges with the massive boulders. Custom handrails were inspired by the zigzag forms of the boulders and stone stairs. The Grotto was restored with new plumbing and a new front edge using small boulders salvaged from the site. Planting in the irregular pockets between the boulders was conceived to virtually eliminate the need for weeding and mulching by using species that would have persistent foliage, a long season of ornamental effectiveness and a growing form that would knit over the ground surface and into the tight nooks and corners of the boulders. This was accomplished with Ajuga reptans ‘Bronze Beauty’, Sesleria autumnalis and Ceratostigma plumbaginoides. Exposure ranges from full sun to part shade, and moisture from exceptionally dry to average/moist. Since it was very important to keep maintenance requirements as simple as possible, we curated a plant palette that would enable us to successfully span this range of growing conditions with the fewest number of species possible. Perennials such as Amsonia x ‘Blue Ice’, Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’ and Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Goldtau’ accomplished this. At the same time, the owners wanted enough diversity to engage garden visitors throughout the year with evolving ornamental qualities.